3. Frank Gehry creates buildings that look like tin forests, including one right here in Minnesota, the Weisman Art Museum on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota campus. The book, Frank O. Gehry: Outside In (2000) by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Doring Kindersley Publishing Company, tells the story of a man with a dream. It has many pictures of Gehry’s fantastic buildings, cardboard furniture, and sculptures. You can also search for images of Gehry’s work on the Artcyclopedia web site, and in the Sculpture Garden of the Walker Art Center. Gehry created the crystal fish that lives in the glass conservatory at the Sculpture Garden. 4. Using artists’ works for inspiration, make three-dimensional junk sculptures from all the odds and ends of “good junk” you’ve collected over the years. Present the concept to children that they are recycling objects no one wants as the old man did in The Tin Forest, and making something new. You will need: round plastic lids or juice can tops, play dough, found objects, wire, other “stuff.” a. Provide children with the lid from a margarine container or a thick piece of cardboard to use as a base for their sculpture, and plenty of play dough as the medium that holds things together. b. Collect found objects for your sculptures such as buttons, yarn, small sticks and dowels, nuts, bolts, washers, bottle caps, straws, and safe wire. Children can add items to this collection of junk. c. You can introduce a topic to focus their creations. Perhaps they are building a forest, or a magic machine. d. Display their sculptures in a mini art show before they take them home.
Joanna Cortright (2004)
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